in IDIOSYNCRASY 125 



to lose it gradually, so that the influence of environ- 

 ment appears to have something to do with it. 



And now, if we consider men of the same race 

 and the same facts would appear if we were to con- 

 sider individuals of any species of animals or plants 

 are we not all acquainted with facts of very notable 

 variability ? The same external influence acts quite 

 differently upon them, and of four men standing in a 

 draught, for instance, one will have pneumonia, the 

 other rheumatism, number three a bad cold, and 

 number four nothing at all but a temporary relief 

 from the heat of the day. 



The very same morbid influence typhoid fever as an 

 instance acts differently, producing in the one patient 

 gastric symptoms, while cerebral trouble is predomi- 

 nant in another. Every physician can furnish any 

 number of similar instances, and can also show that 

 while in every epidemic of every disease there are 

 different forms of the same disease which are doubt- 

 less in correspondence with different personal variabi- 

 lities or idiosyncrasies, these idiosyncrasies vary from 

 one time to another, so that in one epidemic one form 

 predominates, while in another some different form 

 is most frequent. It thus seems that personal varia- 

 tion varies according to seasons and periods under 

 unknown influences. Or else, if no variation is 

 assumed to exist in the patients, there then exists 



